Thursday, 26 September 2013

Jon Hopkins - Breathe This Air feat. Purity Ring (Video)

Right now wherever we look it seems that house music and slow-mo r’n’b jams are dominating the world of electronic dance music, the likes of techno and ambient hardly getting a look in. Thankfully Jon Hopkins’ Immunity has managed to stick its head through the cobwebs of consensus and rightly grab some attention. The Mercury Prize nominated record is a wonderfully paced soundtrack, from the glitchy stumbling opener of We Disappear to its incredibly tender ten minute sunrise / sunset closing title track – a piece of music we’ve put at the end of every single compilation CD recorded for friends and family this year.

Immunity will inevitably feature on many of the more discerning end of year lists - we’d put it close to Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92 in terms of overall listening brilliance from records of this genre. What are its chances of winning the Mercury? Probably zero, but we’d be incredibly happy if it did, it would suddenly make the whole thing seem worthwhile.

From Immunity comes a reworked version of Breathe This Air, which features added vocals from Purity Ring’s Megan James. Yesterday Hopkins released the Anthony Dickensen directed video for the song, which features two people both pursuing what they believe to be very solitary activities yet for just a split second their existences intersect. A quick word of warning, the video contains a small amount of nudity, so if you’re offended by that sort of thing (or are at work and think colleagues will be) don’t press play.